Year 12 Modern - LIMP PAPER

LIMP PAPER? What am I talking about? Well, it's a way of remembering how Hitler rose to power, courtesy of John Clare, who has lots of helpful Germany resources online.
LIMP PAPER is an acronym for the main reasons that Hitler came to power, as follows:

Long-term bitterness (over WW1 and Versailles)
Ineffective Constitution (Article 48, proportional representation)
Money (finanical support for the Nazis from big business)
Propaganda (the Nazis were good at publicising themselves and their ideas)

Program (Hitler's 25-point program of ideas to 'save' Germany appealed to almost everyone
Attacks on other parties (the SA used violence to intimidate Hitler's opponents)
Personal qualities (Hitler was a mesmerising speaker who had a lot of power/charisma)
Economic Depression (Germany's economy collapsed and support for the Nazis soared)
Recruited by Hindenburg (after Bruning, Papen and Schleicher, the Pres gave Hitler a go...)

Check it all out here.

Year 12 Modern - Weimar Poll Closed

So, according to the vast majority of you (72%), it was Gustav Stresemann who turned around Weimar Germany's fortunes in the late 1920s. I guess they didn't call it the 'Stresemann Era' for nothing, then...

New poll up soon.

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - The Polls Have Closed!

Well, the results of the first Modern and Ancient blog polls are in. OK, not many of you voted, but I'm going to publish the results anyway...

In answer to the question,

What do you think was the major problem faced by the Weimar Republic?

44% of you thought it was economic collapse. 33% thought it was the humilation of Versailles. The rest thought it was uprisings by the Right.

And, in Ancient, in response to the question

Which class of Spartans would you like to have been born into?

The vast majority (60%) said the perioeci , possibly because they had few rights but equally few responsibilities. Next was Spartiates with 26 %. Helots and Inferiors got one vote each...though I can't figure out why.

There'll be new polls up soon, plus there's one on Lycurgus for you Ancient Historians to have a go at.

Year 12 Modern - Weimar Germany 1924-29

Hi Modern students...here is the powerpoint we did this week on Germany 1924-29:


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith

You can download the powerpoint here.

I will post some assessment stuff up in the next few days, ready for next Thursday's exam.

Year 12 Modern - Gustav Stresemann

Gustav Stresemann was considered perhaps the foremost politician of Weimar Germany. In fact, the years 1924-1929 are known as the 'Stresemann Era'. Many historians consider him the major force behind restoring democratic Germany after the chaotic early years of Weimar.

Stresemann won the Nobel peace Prize in 1926, for signing the Locarno Treaty, which guaranteed the borders of France, Belgium, and Germany.

Below is his biography, as listed on the Nobel Prize website:

Gustav Stresemann (May 10, 1878-October 3, 1929) was the son of a prosperous owner of a restaurant and tavern. In his early years he helped in the family business and, since he was a lonely boy, assiduously pursued his studies. After attending the Andreas Real Gymnasium in Berlin, Stresemann studied literature, philosophy, and political economy at Berlin and Leipzig. During these student days, he discovered that he had powers of leadership as well as a capacity for literary attainment. He wrote critical essays on the Utopia of Thomas More and the lyrics of D.F. Strauss, historical pieces on Bismarck (and later, on Napoleon), and acted as spokesman for his student association. His dissertation for his doctorate, an economic investigation of the bottled beer trade in Berlin, was both practical and theoretical, assessing the pressures of big business capitalism on the independent middle class of Berlin. [Full biography here...]

Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1926

Year 12 Modern - Weimar Germany Revision

I'm sure you're after some fun revision activities this weekend, so here you go...

For a quick online revision activity on Weimar 1919-23, try this page.

Next, try this cloze passage on the Spartacist Putsch.

Then use this spidergram to cement your understanding of how Germans reacted to the Versailles Treaty.

Year 12 Modern - The Weimar Constitution

The Weimar Constitution aimed to establish a Germany that was democratic, liberal, and progressive. Instead, it created a fragile democracy which lurched from crisis to crisis until 1923, and was then easily dismantled by Hitler ten years later.

Why did this democratic experiment fail?

This website lists the main clauses of the 1919 Weimar Constitution.

Go here for a word-fill exercise all about the Weimar Constitution (good for revision)!

Check out this Powerpoint presentation about how the constitution worked.

John Clare's website lists the main problems with the Constitution as follows:

Ineffective Constitution

The Weimar Constitution did not create a strong government:

	Article 48 of the constitution gave the President sole power in ‘times of emergency’ – something he took often.
	The system of proportional voting led to 28 parties. This made it virtually impossible to establish a majority in the Reichstag, and led to frequent changes in the government. During 1919-33, there were twenty separate coalition governments and the longest government lasted only two years. This political chaos caused many to lose faith in the new democratic system.
	The German states had too much power and often ignored the government.
	The Army, led by the right-wing General Hans von Seeckt, was not fully under the government’s control. It failed to support government during the Kapp Putsch or the crisis of 1923.
	Many government officials – especially judges – were right-wing and wanted to destroy the government. After the Kapp Putsch, 700 rebels were tried for treason; only 1 went to prison. After the Munich Putsch, Hitler went to prison for only 9 months.

Year 12 Modern - The Spartacist Uprising 1919

The Spartacist Uprising of January 1919 was the first major revolt against the new German republic after World War One ended. It was led by a breakaway communist group called the Spartacists, who were disillusioned with the direction of the larger, more moderate Socialist Party.

The SPD under Chancellor Ebert called in the army, plus the right-wing militia (made up of former soldiers) called the Freikorps, to put down the putsch. The ringleaders, most notably Rosa Luxemburg (pictured) and Karl Liebknecht, were killed by the authorities.

Try these links for a summary of the event and the main characters involved:

The putsch
Rosa Luxemburg
Karl Liebknecht
Chancellor Ebert
Freikorps

All courtesy of the very useful Spartacus Educational website...

Year 12 Modern - Weimar 1919-1923 Powerpoint

This is the presentation we did today in class. It covers Weimar Germany from 1919 to 1923...


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith

Year 12 Modern - Weimar Worksheet

Here is an activity you can do in your own time, on the early days of the Weimar Republic.

First, download this worksheet containing some sources on Weimar.

Then, complete this activity sheet, using the sources to help you.

Year 12 Modern - 90th Anniversary of Weimar Germany

Here is a story from the Earth Times from last week, commemorating the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Weimar Republic:

Weimar, Germany - The German city of Weimar commemorated its role Friday in the brief flowering of German democracy between the monarchy and the Nazis 90 years ago, with Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier saying the Weimar Republic deserved more respect. German legislators met on February 6, 1919 in Weimar, a quiet provincial city far from the riots and violence of Berlin, to found a republic, replacing the monarchy which had lost the First World War. The assembly stayed in the town till August 1919. Despite its ferment of creativity and reforms, the Weimar Republic disappointed many voters, who replaced it with a Nazi dictatorship, the Third Reich, in free elections in 1933. Many Germans still view the fractious Weimar period as a failure. Chancellor Angela Merkel did not attend Friday's ceremonies, which were organized by the city and left-of-centre parties which take a more sympathetic view of the first German democracy. Steinmeier, the top-ranking Social Democrat in the Merkel government, said at a ceremony in the city's National Theatre that the first democracy failed because its citizens had not been committed to its preservation. "The Weimar Republic was not condemned from birth to failure," said. "It bore hope and the promise of a free order in Germany."He hailed its achievements including the vote for women, freedom of expression, the legalization of trade unions and unemployment insurance. Steinmeier said the republic had been destroyed by an "unholy alliance" of the far left and far right. This year contains two other important German anniversaries where Merkel is to preside. They are the 60th birthday of the present-day German Federal Republic and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and with it the end of communism in Germany.